Fantasy Football Week 10 Preview: Chiefs at Steelers

Kansas City: Ugly ugly ugly… and no, I’m not just talking about Romeo Crennel’s chances of being a head coach after this season, or even Scott Pioli’s chances of not being run out of town on a rail before 2013 kicks off.

No, I’m just talking about the Chiefs’ chance of actually having anything useful fantasy-wise during a visit to Pittsburgh.

The Steelers are playing inspired football right now, and have especially made big strides on defense, which doesn’t bode well for the Chiefs, who rank 29th in the league in scoring with a paltry 16.6 ppg average.

Matt Cassel will get another start this week, but does it really matter?

Cassel hasn’t played well since 2010, and he probably isn’t starting now on the road against the No. 1 ranked defense yardage-wise in the league. Of course, Dwayne Bowe is the only receiver he tends to throw to, so even if Cassel only tosses 150 yards in a game, you can bet that half that production will go Bowe’s way.

The near guarantee of production can’t be said for the Chiefs’ other real offensive star, Jamaal Charles. Charles has been wildly inconsistent, with two great games, two mediocre games, two not-so-good games, and then two big-time stinkers.

So which Charles are we going to see? Well, against the tougher defenses I’d expect a performance more toward the lower two categories, as the Steelers just plain don’t give up a lot on the ground these days. This game could get ugly really quick, which means Charles probably gets the plug pulled earlier rather than later.

Pittsburgh: The Steelers return home after pulling out a come from behind victory against the New York Giants in Week 9. Ben Roethisberger wasn’t necessarily on his best game, but he did manage to hit Mike Wallace on a big catch and run TD pass, which helped make for a pretty good fantasy day all around.

This week, the Steelers find themselves with a much friendlier opponent in the Chiefs, and with former Chiefs coach Todd Haley running the offense for Pittsburgh. Gee, I wonder if he’ll want to ram the ball down the Chiefs’ throat and drop 40 points on them? Seriously, would anyone be surprised if this game ends 41-6? Didn’t think so.

With that in mind, this is a game where if you have any of the major players for the Steelers and they’re actually healthy for them game, you go ahead and play them. Big Ben, Wallace, and whoever gets the start at RB are all worth starting if you have them.

Speaking of the running game, we don’t know yet who will actually get the start, but after last week’s strong performance I would guess a healthy Isaac Redman gets first crack, while sharing with Jonathan Dwyer. I’m not convinced that Rashard Mendenhall is truly healthy yet, so I wouldn’t play him unless I see him actually do something in a game first.